A SWORD NAMED WHITE CLOUD
by DAVID MEINHART
contributed by Dale Atkins
HISTORY
This sword, White Cloud, was made by the first generation
sword smith Masatoshi sometime between 1504 and 1520. It is believed that he
studied sword making in the Muramasa school, at Ise Province,
then opened his own forge in Sakakura in Mino Province.
The records about Masatoshi are obscure due to his association with Muramasa
whose blades fell out of favor with the ruling government of Japan. Tokugawa Iyeyasu, who became
the ruling shogun in 1603, was superstitious regarding Muramasa swords. He had
relatives killed by blades of the sword smith and he personally cut himself
badly on a Muramasa blade. He forbade his samurai to wear blades by Muramasa.
This led to many legends about the cutting ability of Muramasa swords, as well
as plays and dramas in Japanese literature. It is said that "a Muramasa
blade always has something evil about it, and once it leaves its scabbard, it
never returns to it with out first seeing blood." Since the family of
Tokugawa's ruled Japan
for almost three hundred years, the records of Muramasa's school, at which
Masatoshi worked, became lost or discarded out of fear of reprisal by the
ruling government.
This sword is a first quality representation of the Muramasa school. Its name, White Cloud, is derived from the puffy
white "clouds" of tempering above the temperline in spots (many
Muramasa school blades were named). The cutting test was done on December 18, 1659 by
Hirata Juemon and was requested by the Seishi family. Two bodies of convicted
criminals were used to perform the test. They would be laid on a sand mound and
tied down with ropes. White Cloud went through both bodies and into the sand
mound by ten inches. The mound of sand was used so the sword was not damaged
while performing the cut. Cutting tests on Koto (old) period swords are rare as
well as swords that are named like "White Cloud". This is a most
unusual and rare sword with much history behind it.
BLADE DETAILS
Blade length
(nagasa) = 27.75 inches
Curvature (sori) = 0.5 inches middle curvature (torii sori
Tip (kissaki) = large (o-kissaki)
Temperline (hamon) = straight with irregularities (suguha midare)
with an area of violent tempering above tang (koshiba)
Temper in Tip (boshi) = round like the head of Buddhist stone statue
(jizo)
Grain in Steel (hada) = wood grain (itame)
Tang (nakago) = slight ship bottom (furisode)
